Pakistan Peoples Party - Murtazi Bhutto's faction

image by Joe McMillan

The Pakistani flag is derived from a party flag.
The ruling PPP of Benazir Bhutto uses a flag which incorporates the basic flag
design (white inclined crescent and star on dark green), the same is true for
the separatist faction of the PPP let by Mrs Bhutto's brother. Both parties use
vertical tricolors.Harald Müller, 28 October 1996

Yesterday I saw on the news a report on the murder of Pakistani politician
Murtazi Bhutto, brother of prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and one of the
strongest oppositions leaders.

There was a short scene from archives
of one of his speeches a few days ago, where he sat at the table on which there
was a flag I haven't seen before. I suppose that it is the flag of his party
(which I don't remember what it is called). The flag was a vertical tricolour of
red (at the hoist) - black - green with a white crescent and star very similar
in shape to the one on Pakistani national flag.

The flag looks quite
dark with this choice of colours, but quite effective if you ask me.
Željko Heimer, 22 September 1996

This would appear very similar to
an old flag of Libya (1950-1969), which was red-black-green in three stripes,
but horizontal (with the black stripe twice as wide as the other
stripes). There was a white crescent and star on the black stripe. Source: The International Flag Book in Colour, C.F. Pedersen (1970)
James Dignan, 25 September 1996

Two
offshoots of this party are represented in the newly elected parliament,
PPP-Parliamentarians and PPP-Sherpao. PPP-P won 71 of the 342 seats (25.8% of
the vote) and is the largest single block in the National Assembly. PPP-Sherpao
won two seats. The websites of both Benazir
Bhutto's faction of the party and her
brother's widow show identical flags, a red-black-green vertical tricolor
with a white crescent and star on the black stripe. (I'm not quite clear on how
these long-established factions relate to the offshoots elected to parliament,
as Benazir herself is in exile and definitely persona non grata.)
We show (below) a plain tricolor without the crescent and star, identifying it as
the flag of the faction led by Benazir. I saw a number of the plain tricolors,
especially before crossing the Indus River from Punjab into the Northwest
Frontier Province (NWFP), as well as a few on the outskirts of Peshawar on which
some kind of white logo but not the crescent and star had been applied to the
black stripe. I'm forwarding the flag as seen on the party websites.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

The latest photos I have
(but months before Joe's trip) show the flag with a white horizontal sword in
the lower part.Jaume Ollé,
31 January 2003

Might it have been
an arrow? One of the PPP factions was using an arrow as a party symbol, although
I did not see it on a flag. The unidentifiable logo I saw was clearly not a
sword--it looked like an American football with an inscription below it.Joe McMillan, 1 February 2003

Pakistan Peoples Party - Benazir Bhutto's faction

image by Jorge Candeias

Yesterday, in a news report on the nuclear
tensions between India and Pakistan, I saw an unknown to me flag: a 1:2 vertical
tricolour of red, black and green. It was being flown in a military parade. Any
ideas?Jorge Candeias, 18 May 1998

It's the flag of the
Pakistan People's Party, of which Benazir Bhutto is the leader. Flags of
political parties throughout the sub-continent tend to be modified at the whim
of the maker: crescents, stars, slogans, images of people, (usually the leader),
etc., are all commonly displayed on them.Glen Robert-Grant Hodgins, 19
May 1998

A few days ago, television news covered the
arrival back in Pakistan of Benazir Bhutto. A large rally was shown in one
scene, with a lot of flags, mainly of two sorts. One of those was a variant on a
flag shown above (Murtazi Bhutto's faction),
with the white crescent and star on a red-black-green vertical tricolour. It had
the addition, however, of script in white under the crescent and star. James Dignan, 22 October 2007

image by Eugene Ipavec, 28 December 2007

At the funeral of Benazir Bhutto, the coffin was covered with the
red-black-green tricolor flag of the Pakistan People's Party, but oddly with a
crescent & star in the middle stripe as identified here as the flag of the PPP's
"Murtazi Bhutto's faction." Benazir Bhutto's faction's flag used to lack the
charge. I assume the party has reunited in the four years since? The coffin flag
was in the longer proportions of the Benazir faction, and the crescent & star
were rendered differently (thicker):Eugene Ipavec, 28 December 2007

image by Clay Moss, 28 December 2007

I have also seen a party
flag variant(?) with an arrow that was prominently displayed on BBC. I saw two
versions of this same flag. One was on BBC's website and the other was on BBC
television.Clay Moss, 28 December 2007

A recent Reuters news photo showed the PPP
flag of red/black/green
tricolor with crescent and star, but also what appears to be an arrow
and Arabic script just below, all in the center black stripe. Is this
a faction flag of the PPP and which one?Tom Carrier, 29 December 2007

A second flag was also in evidence - a France-like tricolour of red-white-blue,
with script across the bottom in red and white, and three or four Roman/European
letters vertically in red on the white stripe, "? P M A".James Dignan, 22 October 2007

The ruling party in Pakistan is currently the Muslim League. It's flag is a
white crescent on a green field, (just like the Pakistani national flag, but
without the white bar at the hoist); in fact, the Pakistani national flag was
based upon the flag of the Muslim League, just as the Indian national flag was
based upon that of the Indian National Congress.Glen Robert-Grant
Hodgins, 19 May 1998

Parties of this name have come and gone since
before independence. The current incarnation was the party of former Prime
Ministers Junejo and Nawaz Sharif. It is now split into a number of factions,
five of which won seats in the October election: PML-Quaid-i-Azam (69 seats,
25.7% of the vote), PML-Nawaz (14 seats, 9.4%), PML-Functional (4 seats, 1.1%),
PML-Junejo (2 seats, 0.7%) and PML-Shahid Zia (1 seat, 0.3%). The flag of the
PML is green with the white crescent and star--basically the national flag minus
the white stripe at the hoist. This flag can also be seen at the
website-in-exile of the
Nawaz faction.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Jamiat e Islami

image by António Martins and Mario Fabretto

Yesterday, the news
was full of reports from demonstrations against Mrs Bhutto, now led by the party
jam'at alislami. Its flag replaces the white stripe of the national flag by
a light blue and a white stripe (ratio approx 2:1). Moreover, the crescent and
star point towards the hoist. Perhaps, the orientation of the crescent reflects
the orientation of the party (which, in this case, is considered to be a
"fundamentalist" one).Harald Müller, 28 October 1996

In
yesterday's paper Publico I saw a photo taken in Islamabad (a demonstrator
holding a sign saying "CRUSH INDIA") with two or three flags on background: per
bend azure over green, a bend argent. Does this ring a bell to someone?
António Martins, 15 May 1998

That's the flag of the party Jamiat
Al Islami. At least three versions are know, all in vertical blue (at hoist)
and green at fly (1:4) and a narrow white stripe between the two bands. The
differences are the following:

1) the first one has the crescent
and star (like the Pakistan national flag) and below the shahada.

2) the second has only the crescent and star (reported by Harald Mueller,
former list member, with the crescent pointing towards the hoist and slighty
rotated to the bottom; but I saw it in TV with the crescent and star in normal
position).

3) The third has only the shahada and no crescent and
star.

Seems to me that the last one is the official version. The second
one is the most frequently used by the people; the first one is a variant of the
other two.Jaume Ollé, 17 May 1998

image by Jorge Hurtado

The Party Jamât-e-Islami (Islamist party) flag was seen on a visit to
Pakistan from February to March 2001.Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas,
October 2001

The Jamaat-e-Islami is a very conservative Islamist party that is one of the
two leading components of the MMA, the Islamist coalition. The MMA won 53 seats
in the national assembly (11.3% of the vote) as well as control over the state
assembly of NWFP. We have an image of one and describe several others on our
party flag page. I saw this flag on at least 100 houses and commercial buildings
between the Indus and Peshawar--green field with light blue and white vertical
stripes at the hoist, and on the green field a crescent star opening toward the
upper hoist (the crescent thinner and shallower than that on the national flag)
and the shahada in white at the top. Also visible on
the party website.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

A poster was displayed in Quetta, Pakistan, showing this flag along with what
appear to be variants of the Taliban flag (white with one or another variant of
the shehada), displayed in Quetta, Pakistan. Al Kirsch, 13 October 2001

Some time ago I recorded a photo from the news of a demonstration in Sindh.
The demonstrators hoisted a flag in the Catalan pattern (4 bars) white on dark
(probably black or dark red).
Many years ago, when Islamism didn't exist at the level of political
organisations, I saw this flag many times on TV in new related to Pakistan,
Sindh or Punjab (green, black or blue were the colors that I seemed to see).
Currently the flag seems to be identified as an Islamist party flag, but why
does it exist from many years ago? Can it be a regional flag? Probably regional
flags exist in Pakistan.
Some years ago, in my notes, and from other vexillologists, it seems that is has
only three white bars (and four green).
I saw a photo of Jaipur in Punjab with a similar flag (the flag is not totally
visible, but could be three white bars on blue of three blue bars on white.Jaume Ollé, 30 August 1999

The faction of this even more hardline Islamist party led by Fezlur Rehman
(and known by the ironic abbreviation JUI-F) is the other main component of the
MMA coalition. The JUI flag, seen in the logo on its website
http://www.juipak.org is black with four
narrow white horizontal stripes.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Variants of this flag

image by Santiago Dotor

During demonstrations in Peshawar, this flag was also seen in a square (1:1)
format, almost certainly black (it could be mistaken with very-very dark green
at first glance) and had four white horizontal stripes. The proportion of the
white and black stripes was 2:3.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

I have just seen a documentary on the "Talibanization" of Pakistan, and in it
the Islamist MMA party was holding a rally, at which there was a variation of
this flag with the black stripes twice the size of the white stripes.Nygdan, 9 January 2006

A coalition of moderate secular parties which won 12 seats (4.6% of the vote) in
the national assembly. At
http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/1977.htm the flag of the Pakistan National
Alliance, which seems to be the same group, is shown as green with nine white
stars, 3 x 3, each star tilted about 30 degrees counterclockwise. Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

The nine stars flag was reported some years ago as the flag of IDA, Islamic
Democratic Alliance.Jaume Ollé,
31 January 2003

One of the component parties of the PNA. I saw this flag--divided lower hoist to
upper fly, red over green, with the white crescent and star overall--on
Pakistani television on 12 January and was able to identify it from
http://www.millatparty.comJoe McMillan, 30 January 2003

This is the flag of Khaksar Tehrik, a political party in Pakistan. The
English translation of "Tehrik" is "Movement". See
http://allama-mashriqi.8m.com/ for information on Allama Mashriqi -scholar
and founder of the Khaksar movementOffice of Allama Mashriqi, 29 Nov 1999

A small party favoring "a model moderate Islamic republic, political freedom,
economic opportunity, and social justice," but best known for being led by the
great cricket player Imran Khan, who won the party's only parliamentary seat
(the party got 0.8% of the vote). The flag can be seen at
http://insaf.org.pk: horizontally green over
red with a white crescent and star overall.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

A rather Iranian-looking flag for a party with 1 parliamentary seat and 0.7% of
the vote. Despite its small support base, I saw several of these flags on the
outskirts of Peshawar: horizontal tricolor, red-white-green.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, this flag is fairly
new as far as I know, though I have seen the flag on TV. Can anybody identify
the inscription?Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas,
October 2001

The inscription is Akbar = The greatest.Dov Gutterman, 16 October 2001

I would like to contest your translation of Party Al-Jihad Tanzim. It could
be read Akbar, but I believe it to be Al-Jihad. Though it could very well have
been written this ambiguous way to convey both meanings. As with the following
pages which do indeed say al-Jihad, a small 'h' (chhoTii he) is occasionally
used instead of the big 'H' (baRii He) in Urdu. If this were pure Arabic, you
would be uncontested. But in my opinion, this is a Nastaliq (Perso=Arabic style
of the Arabic Alphabet) rendering of Al-Jihad.Kurt Singer, 24 February 2005

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, this flag is fairly
new as far as I know.Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas,
October 2001

I believe the inscription is 'the jihad'.Santiago Dotor, 16 October 2001

On ABC Television last night, there was a piece on Pakistanis who've gone to
fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. At one point, there was a brief shot of a
billboard in Pakistan about those who've fought. The camera focused on a flag
depicted on the bottom left (the "signature" area) of the sign (that is, a small
picture of a flying flag on a pole, not a real flag). The flag was white, with
two green stripes running across it- rather than five stripes,
white-green-white-green-white, it seemed to be two thick stripes in the center
of the flag. In the center of the flag, covering the stripes (they weren't
visible under it) was a black and white globe, shown as a circle/sphere with
latitude and longitude marked (no continents). Written on the globe was an
Arabic (or Urdu/Pashto?) word or two, but the camera moved away before I could
make it out.Nathan Lamm, 5 December 2001

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, the Party Jihad, which
advocates holy war in Kashmir. This is a fairly new flag as far as I know. I
believe the inscription is 'jihad'.Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas,
October 2001

The MQM was founded in 1981 as "Muhajir Quami Mahaz" (Muhajir National
Movement), and was mainly concerned with the rights of post-partition
Urdu-speaking migrants from India to Pakistan, who it would like to see
recognized as constituting a "fifth nationality". In 1987 the party won a
majority of seats in Karachi, and, with 13 seats, became the third biggest party
in the National Assembly in 1988. In 1993 the party split in three groups:
- The "official" MQM
- MQM-Altaf, led by Altaf Husain. resident in London
- MQM-Haqiqi, led by Afaq Ahmed

It seems that the MQM-Altaf became the dominant party under the name Muttahida Quami Movement. In 1999 the Pakistani government launched a secretive operation
against the MQM, which cost the lives of several prominent party-members, which
in its turn caused demonstrations in Karachi

The MQM movement applied to become a member of the UNPO some years ago. They
are from the Sind minority living in the Southern part of Pakistan.Pacer Prince, 27 September 2001

Muttahida Quami Movement (formerly Mohajir Quami Movement) (MQM) - The MQM is
a mainly Karachi-based party that caters to the interests of Mohajirs, the
Muslims who emigrated from India to Pakistan at partition in 1947 and their
descendants. It won 13 seats (3.1% of the vote) in the new national assembly.
The flag, as shown at http://www.mqm.org
consists of vertical stripes of red and dark green at the hoist and a large
white field in the fly. The green stripe is sometimes shown equal to the red one
and sometimes slightly narrower. Click
here for an equal width red/green stripe version.Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

I haven't seen any of these in town [Islamabad], but at the
website of the Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is the MMA party flag: white with a green crescent open
toward the upper hoist, with the Arabic words Allahu akbar (God is great)
inscribed within the horns of the crescent and the party name in Urdu script at
the bottom. This is the union of Islamist parties that got so much attention for
its strong showing in the recent elections, including gaining control of the
provincial legislature in the heavily Pashtun Northwest Frontier Province.Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Yesterday I saw a TV report about the arrest of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader
of the pro-Taleban Pakistani party Jamiat Ulema Islam. Even though most images
showing him attending demonstrations showed the black flag with white stripes we
have already discussed, another demonstration showed several people waving large
flags unlike any other of the Pakistani UFEs we have discussed. These were
vertical tricolours of red-white-green, with a red star in the centre pointing
downwards. The shade of red appeared slightly orange on my monitor. I guess you
are thinking I saved my image upside down by some mistake. Well, I am afraid I
didn't! I did see several flags, all of them with the red stripe by the *hoist*,
and those in which I could see the central star, this was pointing *down*.Santiago Dotor, 8 October 2001

BBC TV also had similar footage. I agree that the red looked orange. My
impression - and it's only an impression - was that some stars were pointing
downwards, some sideways. Difficult to tell in a couple of seconds and without
the video running! I wasn't clear from the commentary who the demonstrators were
- the former king of Afghanistan was also mentioned.André Coutanche, 8 October 2001

This red-white-green tricolour with red upside-down
star is that of the Pushtunkuwa National Awami Party. The star is
correct as in the image (upside down), even if there might be variations as in
Santiago Tazón's image below. It has been reported on
Yahoo Daily News, wrongly attributed to the Jamuhari Watan Party, unless
this party uses the same flag. The caption reads: "Pakistani men wave their
party's flag and hold up banners during a rally of the JWP (Jamuhari Watan
Party, a leftist, nationalist, pro-democracy party) in central Quetta October 7,
2001. Thousands of Pakistan's Pasthun-speaking people heard their leader,
Mehmoud Khan Achakzai, call for an independent, democratic government in
Afghanistan. The Achakzai leftist Nationalist party is opposed to any U.S.
military intervention, saying a democratic Afghanistan would root out foreign
terrorists like Osama Bin Laden. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen"Jaume Ollé,
12 October 2001

Variant of the flag

image by Santiago Tazón

I saw this flag in the TV news, today. A Spanish TV channel was broadcasting
a report about the Islamic movements of Pakistan, they mixed several images and
in one of them appeared several flags like the image that I made. Three vertical
stripes, green, white and red; all of them same width. In the center of the
white stripe a red five points star. I don't know what group uses it.Santiago Tazón, 7 October 2001

According to the "El Universal" (Mexican newspaper) this is the flag
of the "Islamic Students Organization of Pakistan". I can just identify the text
that says "Pakistan" at the end of the sentence, may be it is the organization's
name. The orange text says: "Allahu Akbar" (God is almighty).Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 13 October 2001

The flag of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba is green at the hoist, narrow red vertical
stripe, last half (more or less) light blue with white crescent and star opening
to fly. Whatever website I got this from says the organization was formed in
1947. "Jamiat" means something like "union," I believe, so this would be
something like "Islamic Union of Students."

A similar flag is at
http://www.jamiat.org/about/flag.asp. The colors are the same, but the green
and red bands in the hoist are of about equal width, the crescent and star face
the hoist, the crescent is thinner and shallower, and the Takbir (Allahu akbar)
appears in red between the crescent and the star. The name on this site is
given as Islami Jamiat Talibat Pakistan, which should mean Islamic Union of
Students of Pakistan. Sounds like the same group, but the site says it was
founded in 1969, so apparently not--maybe an offshoot.Joe McMillan, 2 February 2003

I saw on Polish TG a flag hoisted during an anti-American demonstration in
Pakistan (most probably in Peshawar). This flag does not seem to be any of
Pakistani political movements' flags, nor it is the Taliban movement's flag, as
far as the outside world knows anything about Taliban regime. It's probable that
it's to connected to some political and religious movement involving Taliban and
Pakistani Moslems. Bartek Wojciechowski, 22 September 2001

There is something written under the crescent. Fortunately, in a TV news
coverage this evening a slightly enlarged version of the flag appeared. I took a
TV screenshot of it and analyzed the content of the inscription. Please note it
has a rather low degree of accuracy, as:
- the shooting quality was poor
- transposing images via TV-MAC-PC gives shabby effects
- the flag appeared for mere 2.05 sec
- the flag was waving
- the flag (and letters) was actually inverted
- the flag appeared in the very corner of the TV screen
- I don't speak Urdu.

I have some knowledge of Persian (written in Arabic script as well) though and I
tried to put down the letters:

I don't understand the first word (words?), but the middle one and the last one
go "...Talib Pakistan". That's quite understandable, isn't it? I hope somebody
with good command of Urdu or Arabic, maybe will able to correct my version and
say what it means.Bartek Wojciechowski, 26 September 2001

This is the flag of islami jamiat e talabe (Islamic Students
Organization). Their official website is at:
www.jamiat.org.pkDr. Zafar Iqbal, 22 April 2006

Black with the shahada. Given the source, undoubtedly a radical Islamist
group, but a minor political party. The transliteration of the name is not
typical of Urdu, so this may actually be an Arab group of some kind, but the
source is in Pakistan. Source:
http://www.khilafah.com.pkJoe McMillan, 2 February 2003

Seven horizontal stripes, white and red. The party says it seeks provincial
autonomy on the United States, Swiss, and Canadian model.
Source:
http://snfsindh.netfirms.com/snf.htm
Joe McMillan, 2 February 2002

One of the most prominent political movements in present-day Northern Areas
of Pakistan (known also as Boloristan, Dardistan, Karakuram, Balawaristan, etc).
It advocates a far-reaching autonomy for Gilgit-Baltistan State within Pakistan
with the status similar to that of Azad Kashmir. The other main political
movements there: Balawaristan National Front and Karakuram National Movement,
demand outright independence for the state under their name.

The image of the flag of Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement was obtained from the
Chairman of GBUM, Mr.Manzoor Hussain Parwana.Chrystian Kretowicz, 29 March 2008

An image of this flag was provided by an anonymous site visitor. It can be
seen in use at the Pasban home page.
[Ed.]

Pasban ( The Defenders), is a Pakistani political movement that aims to
uproot what it sees as the current oppressive system and to establish a welfare
state in Pakistan. Pasban's president is Altaf Shakoor, born in Karachi in 1959.
An engineer by education and trader by profession, Shakoor was president of the
students' union at NED University of Engineering and Technology in 1981–1982.

The flag consists of a red field with a wide white stripe along the hoist,
and a large white disk bearing a red star extending to the edges of the disk.
Written verically down the hoist side of the white stripe is the word PASBAN.Ian MacDonald, 18 May 2006